Tag Archives: Dior

My Dressmakers’ Ball Dress (AKA Red Carpet Copycat)

After I shared a sneaky peak of what I was making for the Dressmakers’ Ball, I am now here to show you the finished outfit (which you may have already seen if you follow me on Instagram!)

But first I want to share a little bit about the ball itself……it was amazing! It was run by the lovely ladies at Crafty Sew & So, a fabric shop in Leicester. It was so nice to see everyone go all out when given the excuse – and I’m sure some of us don’t need much of an excuse! I kept thinking how awesome it was that sewing allows us to express ourselves exactly as we want to. I can’t imagine how painful it is shopping for a prom dress, or even a wedding dress, and not finding exactly what you want. My prom dress was made by my mum and now I know if I’m going to a wedding or something, whatever I can imagine that I want to wear I can make (within the boundaries of my skills of course!).

These are all the ‘advanced’ dressmakers (which meant you had been sewing for 3 or more years). The photo is by TKL Photography, and I thought it was great that they had a professional photographer taking pictures because whenever I’m having a good time I don’t think to take any (which I guess it how it should be!)

I went with my friend Sarah who I met at the Sew Brizzle meet ups and Jen, also from Bristol, was there too (though she didn’t take part in the competition so isn’t in the photo above).

I was really impressed with the beginner dressmakers too – they had all been sewing for less than 3 years, and some of them had made their dress for the ball and it was the first or second thing they every made! They were a lot, lot, lot better than the first and second things I made, I can tell you! I tried to take some photos, but they’re all terrible and mostly of people’s backs, so do go check out the photo album on CraftySew&So’s facebook page.

Special shout out goes to Kendell, who I sat next to at dinner, and who won the beginner dressmaker category. She has only been sewing since September! (Photo by TKL Photography). Amazing!

Helen from Stitch My Style (who I’ve had a bit of a girl crush on for a while now because I love her vlogs!) won the advanced dressmaker category for her latest recreation project – after the amazingness that was her Marilyn Monroe Dress – the opera dress from Pretty Woman. It truly was a wonder to behold, and she had completely shelf-drafted it. She is a very talented lady! Also I got to chat to her a little bit on the night, and the next morning when some people met for breakfast and she’s as lovely and funny in real life as you’d expect from her videos.

Here she is (left) with the equally lovely Elisalex from By Hand London, who was one of the judges, and Nina from Nina Lee patterns, who I met a couple of years ago at a meet-up and I was surprised she remembered me – for some reason I always assume people will forget me as soon as I leave the room!

Well, this might be enough chat about how great the ball was and maybe I should show you some photos of my dress?

Here it is from the front – looks kind of boring I think, though it is a good colour – the fabric is the leftovers from my By Hand London Alix Dress. The bodice is the Christine Haynes Emery, which is my go to basic bodice as I did quite a bit of fitting back when I first made it, and I’m too lazy to do it all again with a different pattern! The front skirt, though it a sort of made up thing. I used the skirt I drafted for my Navy Lace dress but I extended it to the ground and made the top of the skirt the same length as the bottom of the bodice (plus seam allowances, of course).

There is also a split up the front of the skirt. I did this using a random tutorial I found online, where you make a sort of facing, sewing either side of the line you want for the split, cut the line between the 2 rows of stitching, then turn it to the inside and voila! You have a split, with the raw edges all enclosed. I then handstitched the facing part to the inside using herringbone stitch – there was a lot of handsewing on this dress as the fabric marks quite easily, so where I might have machined a hem on a less ball-worthy dress, I did it all by hand on this one.

You also might be able to see there are trousers underneath my dress. I thought about buying the Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers pattern, but then I remembered I have Gertie Sews Vintage Casual which has a Cigarette Trousers pattern, so I used that.

I did have to do quite a bit of adjusting to the trousers, but I failed to write any notes so I’m stuffed if I want to make them again! I moved the back zip to one of the side seams, shortened the legs on the pattern by an inch below the knee and then took them in quite a lot on the legs. Like an inch or more on each leg, inside and out. They didn’t look perfect but they looked okay. And they fitted okay across the bum from the beginning, so that was a bonus!

Anyway, the interesting thing about my outfit is the back!

As you may have already recognised, this is a copy of an outfit worn by Emma Watson at the Golden Globes a couple of years ago. I tried to recreate her pose, but it didn’t really work. I added a second strap to hide my bra strap. Also I have no idea how her dress is staying up – I added some really strong interfacing to mine, but it still wasn’t quite enough. Luckily Helen from Stitch My Style had some spare (ehem) tit tape so Sarah stuck the top corners to my back, which was great because otherwise I would have spent the whole night adjusting it!

I love how the wind caught the dress in the above photo! The fabric was pleasingly swishy to dance in, but because it’s only half a dress and because of the split, it wasn’t as swirly as Elisalex’s dress, which was definitely one of the best for twirling in!

I’m pretty proud of my pleating on the back, so here’s a close-up. This fabric creases like a bitch, but it does mean once pleats have been ironed in, they stay!

This is me trying to copy Emma Watson’s pose – semi successful I think. If I had a stylist and someone to teach me how to pose, it might have been closer! Oh well!

To sum up, I really love this dress/outfit! I really enjoyed working out how to recreate something I’ve only seen in photos. And it was great to have an opportunity/excuse to make one of the things I’ve been dreaming about making for aaages! I also, surprisingly, enjoyed all of the handsewing. I think next year – assuming they’re running the ball again – I want to make something with a more tricky fabric to work with. Maybe velvet, which I’ve not sewn with yet. And I’d like to give boning a try. I’ve already got an idea in mind of another red carpet copy cat dress, but I’m not going to share it yet because no doubt I will change my mind by next May! I might try to recreate some others of my favourite red carpet looks too, like the less formal ones – I don’t know how many gowns I’ll need in my wardrobe!

I’ll leave you with another photo of our photography assistant who showed up again as The Boyfriend was taking these photos! You may recognise him from the photos I took of my denim moss skirt. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but he lost an eye a few months ago, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed him down.

He seemed pretty determined to photobomb me!

But I couldn’t resist his lovely face. He really is a friendly cat and comes into our flat if we leave our back door open 🙂

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Style Crush: Emma Watson

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Sorry for the radio silence recently! I moved house a couple of weeks ago (last Monday to be exact). We decided we had had enough of London so made the move to Gloucestershire, temporarily living with The Boyfriend’s parents. It took about a week to settle in but now I have my own little sewing area set up and have been sewing and cutting out things for the last few days, so hopefully soon I will have some finished things to show you. And a new backdrop for my photos!

My Style Crush today is Emma Watson – of course, of Harry Potter fame. More recently though, as I’m sure you’re aware, she has become somewhat of a spokesperson for feminism and gender equality, through her work on the He for She Campaign as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. She has recently announced that she will take a year off from acting to focus on this work and to read books and learn stuff. She has set up a feminist bookclub on Goodreads if you’re interested, too.

She also has called on the fashion industry to help affect change towards gender equality as they have such a powerful voice, particularly in terms of how women are perceived and represented in the media. You can watch a video where she talks to some of fashion’s biggest names here:

It may seem a little frivolous now to talk about how I like the clothes that she wears, but the thing about fashion and style is that it is one of the ways people can express themselves and it can make you feel confident or powerful or sexy or however you want to feel in any given situation.

For her recent speeches and things she seems to have mostly worn monochrome, well tailored things. And lots of skinny jeans/ trousers, which I’m a sucker for!

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I especially love this outfit – I don’t think it’s a silhouette I would have gone for, but I love how she looks comfortable and stylish. Maybe some wide-legged cropped trousers/ culottes are in my future?!

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Still mostly in monochrome, I love the next 3 red carpet looks. They’re a bit out of the ordinary and make her look much cooler than wearing a gown or boring dress would. Maybe I should copy this lace top and skirt with my lace!? Maybe not wedding appropriate though…….

I definitely need to make a leather jacket though. I’m not sure I could really pull it off, but I really really want one!

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I love this jumpsuit! I’m being more and more drawn to jumpsuits and dungarees lately. I already have the BHL Holly Jumpsuit and Marilla Walker’s Roberts Collection in my stash, so I think they’re going to move up the queue as the weather warms up.

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I love this outfit mainly for the skirt!

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I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know I loved it when she chopped all her hair off! I thought it made her look super cool and a bit more grown up than she had before – the below picture was at the penultimate Harry Potter premiere. I also love the lave dress. Maybe some more inspiration for my lace!

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Another little lace dress, but this time in a brilliant shade of pink. I think she looks nice in colour, so it’s almost a shame she wears black and white so much, though it is incredibly chic.

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You can’t beat a dress with a contrast colour with a pixie cut. Very 60s!

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As you’ll know if you follow me on Instagram, I’m a big fan of this Dior outfit she wore to the Golden Globes in 2014. I love the colour (though not on me!), the fact that it looks like a normal dress from the front, and the blue shoes! I kinda want to make a copycat version, maybe in more of a pink than red, but I would never have an occasion to wear it. Do you ever sew things for the fun of it even though you know you won’t wear the finished product?

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Fashion History: Dior’s New Look

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After writing my post about the Utility Clothing Scheme, I thought I’d write about the next thing chronologically that shifted fashion: Dior’s New Look. Launched in 1947, the ‘New Look’ was a compete departure from the austerity and seriousness of the wartime fashions. Dior wanted to give women back “their taste for light-heartedness, the art of seduction”. ^source

The main features of the collection were tiny waists and very full skirts, with padding on the ships, to created an illusion of an even tinier waste. Each skirt used up to 20 yards of fabric, which was completely opposite to the restrictions under rationing where turn-ups were banned and pleats were limited. Dior also moved towards rounded shoulders, in contrast to the military-influenced square shoulders of the earlier 40s.

The suit that epitomised the New Look was the Bar suit.

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For those that couldn’t afford to buy the couture but wanted to emulate the New Look, the only option was to sew the look yourself. There were no official sewing patterns released, as far as I can tell, though by the 50s, the silhouette was being adopted more and more so patterns from that era would give you a close approximation of the originals. When doing research for this post, I came across Inside Christian Dior’s New Look on the Vintage Connection.

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The extreme shape was formed by both corsets on the top half and padding under the skirt on the bottom half. “Dior’s own corset (famous for taking inches of the waist) was named “the waspie;” this new version of the Victorian corset was five or six inches deep, made of rigid fabric with elastic inserts, and contained boning and back-lacing. Generally, all corsets of the era were described by fashion magazines as “super-light weight” and were advertised as containing feather boning. In addition to the use of corsets, Dior frequently lined the waists of his skirts and dresses with feather boning. For women who could only afford to buy the mass-produced version of The New Look, Vogue suggested the use of a “waist-liner,” which was a strip of muslin or seam binding with boning sewn into it, which Vogue said gave “a thin strip of indentation about [the] waist, and could be sewn into each…dress…””^source

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Most New Look petticoats were made of stuff nylon, taffeta, or horsehair net. Most often they had a fitted hip yolk leading to several smooth layers of netting that ended with a few ruffles. In order to avoid snags in nylon stockings, Dior ingeniously softened the bottom ruffles of his petticoats with eyelet. If Dior’s skirts and dresses were not full, they were nearly skin-tight. New Look jackets, tightly fitted to the figure, were lined with acetate and muslin to help stiffen and support the outer fashion fabric. Dior’s right, long skirts were given strong linings in order to ward off “seating.” ^source

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Now I’ll leave you with some of my favourite outfits…..

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Although I think I’m more drawn to 60s fashions in general, there is something about these looks which are so glamourous! I slightly wish people still dressed like this, though I can’t imagine they were particularly practical! I’m not sure wearing a corset every day would be super fun, but maybe I’ll have a go at recreating one of these looks one day.

You could use Gertie’s Butterick 5962 to make the Bar suit: